Geng, Yu-Peng and Pan, Xiao-Yun and Xu, Cheng-Yuan and Zhang, Wen-Ju and Li, Bo and Chen, Jia-Kuan (2007) Plasticity and ontogenetic drift of biomass allocation in response to above- and below-ground resource availabilities in perennial herbs: a case study of Alternanthera philoxeroides. Ecological Research, 22 (2). ISSN 0912-3814
Abstract
Changes in plant biomass allocation in response to varying resource availabilities may result from ontogenetic drift caused by allometric growth (i.e., apparent plasticity), a true adjustment of ontogenetic trajectories (true plasticity) or both (complex plasticity). Given that the root allocation of annual species usually decreases during the growth, the developmentally explicit model predicts that annual herbs will exhibit true plasticity in root allocation under above-ground resource limitation and apparent plasticity for moderate stress of below-ground resource. For perennial species, the root allocation of which increases during growth, the reverse patterns would be expected.
In this study, we tested the developmentally explicit model with a perennial weed, Alternanthera philoxeroides (Mart.) Griseb. We report its adaptive changes and ontogenetic drift of root allocation in response to different resource levels (i.e., light, water and nutrient availability) by comparing root allocation on both an age and a size basis. The root allocation of A. philoxeroides increased with the size (i.e., ontogenetic drift) during the growth, and exhibited significant changes in response to different resource availabilities. Furthermore, the root allocation in response to water or nutrient availability exhibited typical complex plasticity, while the light stress only slowed down the growth, with the ontogenetic trajectory unchanged (apparent plasticity). The contrasting responses to above-ground and below-ground stresses were consistent with the prediction of the developmentally explicit model
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| Item Type: | Article (Commonwealth Reporting Category C) |
|---|---|
| Refereed: | Yes |
| Item Status: | Live Archive |
| Additional Information: | Author Version not held. |
| Depositing User: | Dr Chengyuan-Stephen Xu |
| Faculty / Department / School: | Historic - Faculty of Sciences - Department of Biological and Physical Sciences |
| Date Deposited: | 04 May 2010 04:47 |
| Last Modified: | 02 May 2012 04:13 |
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | biomass allocation; plasticity; ontogenetic drift: perennial; Alternanthera philoxeroides |
| Fields of Research : | 06 Biological Sciences > 0607 Plant Biology > 060705 Plant Physiology 06 Biological Sciences > 0602 Ecology > 060203 Ecological Physiology |
| Identification Number or DOI: | doi: 10.1007/s11284-006-0017-9 |
| URI: | http://eprints.usq.edu.au/id/eprint/7695 |
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